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Following Eric Garner's death, Bratton will look at LAPD for guidance on how to retrain NYPD

nws bratton

NYPD Commissioner William Bratton arrives for meeting on death of Eric Garner with elected officials, clergy and others in St. George office of City Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore).
(Staten Island Advance/Tom Wrobleski)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- In 2002, when Bill Bratton was in the running to head the troubled Los Angeles Police Department, a headline in the Los Angeles Times presented the question: "Can N.Y.'s lessons be transferred to L.A.?"

Now, almost 12 years later, as New York City grapples with the aftermath of Eric Garner's death in police custody, Bratton is looking to Los Angeles as he seeks to retrain every officer in the NYPD in the proper use of force.

That'll likely mean more hands-on physical and tactical training for all of the NYPD's cops, as opposed to a focus on navigating bureaucracy and paperwork, said Eugene O'Donnell, a professor of law and police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.

In 2002, when Bratton became police chief in Los Angeles, the city was under a federal consent decree that mandated widespread reforms, largely in response to the 1999 Rampart scandal.

The LAPD commissioned the RAND Corp. to study how the department trains its officers, and the result, a 278-page report titled "Training the 21st Century Police Officer," focused squarely on use of force, search-and-seizure and arrest techniques, as well as community policing and diversity policies.

A look at the LAPD's website today describes, as one of several training strategies, a "Law Enforcement Tactical Application Course," which is "designed to reinforce and enhance an officer's basic tactical knowledge and skills. The course includes in-depth discussion of Use of Force Options, Tactics, Tactical Communications, Firearms Safety and an analysis of OIS and UOF (Lethal and Less Lethal)."

As for the NYPD, "The department really does need to do a lot more, a lot more in the area of training," Bratton said at a press conference Tuesday.

He announced "a top-to-bottom review of all of the training that this department provides to its personnel, specifically focusing on initially use of force.

"How do we train our officers for a takedown? How do we train them to use the various levels of force they're authorized to use, less-than lethal, non-lethal and lethal? ... I would anticipate that coming out of this effort that there will be a retraining of every member in our city Police Department in the weeks, months and potential years ahead."

The announcement has met mixed response from the police rank and file, many of whom privately believe that Garner's death, though tragic, shouldn't be laid on the officers who tried to arrest him Thursday.

A video of the arrest has sparked a national controversy -- the heavyset, 43-year-old Garner, who was accused of selling untaxed cigarettes, can be seen telling two plainclothes officers that he did nothing wrong, and that he's tired of being harassed and repeatedly arrested.

When the officers move in to apprehend him, he tells them, "Don't touch me," and that's when Officer Daniel Pantaleo places him in an apparent chokehold. He and the other officers drag him to the ground, then hold him there as he gasps, "I can't breathe! I can't breathe!"

Several NYPD officers, speaking on anonymity, have disputed that the move was a "chokehold," which is prohibited by the NYPD.

Still, one NYPD officer said additional physical training would be a welcome change.

"They don't even teach you how to defend yourself," the officer said. "So these guys go to the gym, they get jacked up."

Often, the officer said, cops simply resort to outnumbering and jumping on top of a combative suspect.

Said O'Donnell, "Their training really has been about navigating the police bureaucracy, filling out forms ... They do some baton holds. They do some gym and some boxing, but they need to be immersed in this stuff."

More often than not, O'Donnell said, officers enjoy the hands-on training and working through one-on-one scenarios where they practice physical techniques with an instructor.

"They need to learn what to do, comprehensively, when people say, 'I'm not coming along,'" O'Donnell said. "There's still going to be risks. There's still going to be bad outcomes."

Depending on Garner's medical condition, other methods to subdue him may have also caused his death, O'Donnell said. "If they Tasered him, he might have died. If they batoned him, it would have been the worst video you've ever seen."

When someone indicates they don't want to be arrested, O'Donnell said, "There is no magic touch. Nobody's discovered the touch on the shoulder that makes the guy come along."

Another NYPD officer speaking anonymously worried that any retraining would be too one-size-fits-all.

"There's too many variables. Is the guy high? Is he somewhat reasonable? Is he emotionally disturbed?" the officer said. "There isn't one way to do this."

"They give you all these tools so you don't have to engage in fisticuffs," the officer said, opining that Pantaleo and his fellow officers "went after [Garner] too fast."

Police officers are expected to follow a "use of force continuum " that starts with verbal persuasion, or "verbal judo," then escalates to non-lethal force measures, such as physical holds, pepper spray or the use of a Taser, then to baton strikes, and finally to lethal force.

Bratton said Tuesday he will send a team of officers to Los Angeles next week, noting that the LAPD -- which he ran from 2002 to 2009 -- has "the most contemporary policy on use-of-force training."

He also made reference to a May 1, 2007, rally in Los Angeles' MacArthur Park which ended in a melee that saw police firing non-lethal rounds and swinging batons at several journalists and protesters. In a scathing report, the LAPD took the blame for allowing the rally to escalate into a melee that resulted in 246 civilians and 18 officers being injured, and Bratton ordered the widespread retraining of the department's officers.